On this episode of Roadkill, we got together with Rick Pewe and Fred Williams of 4-Wheel and Off-Road Magazine and joined up in their Cheap Truck Challenge. This is a contest where each guy has to buy a truck for 2000 bucks and hop it up for another 2000 and then go head-to-head in a number of competitions to test the vehicles ability, reliability and coolness factor. >> [NOISE] >> [MUSIC] >> Our truck is a '79 Ford Bronco. We overspent on it at 2500 bucks but our argument was it was ready to go as is. It even already had a six inch lift, and some 33 inch mud terrain tires. It's got a 351 V8, beefy C6 trans, the best 205 gear driven transfer case, a Ford nine inch in the back and a Dana 44 in the front. Rick opted for a 1980 Toyota pickup. This thing's almost retro it's so cool. I think he really cheated on the price though because he's got a brand new Marlin crawler lower range transfer case in it. He put lockers at both ends, he's got a lift kit on it. Brand new Mickey Thompson 33 inch tires, so it's gonna perform really well. Even though it's bogus. Fred's truck is cool. It's an 87 Suburban, and I really dig it cuz it's a stripper model with no air conditioning. It also has a four speed, which is gonna help a lot. He threw an off road designed lift kit on it and some cool super swampers. In the end we all spent about the same on our trucks, right at 3500 bucks each. We'll find out how they stack up in the competition. [MUSIC] >> We're here at Fred William's house in Atascadero, California, he's the staffer we're at Four Wheel and Off Road, he's setting this whole thing up. We're only two and a half hours late, who's missing? >> Rick Pewe, late as usual. >> Guaranteed. >> The sun will be down behind those bushes by the time Rick gets here. >> Where's Fred with the beer? >> Cheap Truck Challenge is a competition against the budget. If you are a 17 year old kid, and you worked all summer long, and you only made a few thousand dollars, what would you buy? How would you fix it up? Each editor got a vehicle, did some upgrades to it, and then were gonna go out, take him four wheeling. But they also have to still be reliable and something you can drive to work or school every day. >> [SOUND] >> [SOUND] >> Yeah, no. We're still here at the house. Pewe's not here yet, as usual. >> I gotta good feeling about this one. [LAUGH] [MUSIC] >> This is total flashback. It's like everyone I knew in the 80s had one of these. [MUSIC] >> Right now the last thing is to put the drive shaft on. I took it off because the transfer case was brand new. I didn't want to take that chance of burning it out. So I'll put it on. There's only eight bolts. Done. I'm ready to go wheeling. The worst thing about this challenge is I don't have a clue. Fred said be here on time, which for me I am, and we're gonna go wheeling. I don't know where, I don't know what. It says to bring a gallon of milk, I have no idea what that means either. So, I'm up for it. I got my driveshaft, I got my truck, I'm ready. >> The thing I'd like to point out right now is that the hot rod team showed up having driven our truck here truck completely ready to go. We stood around waiting for four hours waiting for Pewe and he's still working on it after driving here with his luxurious Apollo motor home. Fail. >> [NOISE] >> That a nuisance. [NOISE] >> The first thing we're gonna do is a ride and drive. Everybody gets to drive each others vehicles. We'll check fuel economy. It's all kind of an on-road test. >> Works fine. >> Toyota. Where's the seat belt in this piece of [SOUND]? >> [NOISE] >> Make sure he loses the fuel economy test. Let's drive it all the way their in first. [LAUGH] >> This thing has a real sucky clutch. >> Everyday I'm shuffling. Let's just go offloading right now. >> Right there. >> Coming over. Yeah, this is [INAUDIBLE] drag race. >> Really? >> Yeah. >> [SOUND] >> Yeah, you want some? >> [SOUND] >> Yeehaw. >> Now he's wasting our gas. That was a gallon right there. >> Yep. [SOUND] >> Hello officer. The steering wheel is falling off. Do you see that? >> This is our special test facility. Top secret ranch in the middle of nowhere. We start with a drag race and an obstacle course. We're going to play in the mud a little. So we have a few different things we're going to try. We also have some guests. These are the Land Rover off road training instructors. These guys are used to really high end vehicles. So that will be perfect for testing and judging our piles of garbage. >> [NOISE] >> This is the drag race. Not like most drag races where you start on the flat surface because our vehicles are a little bit older and maybe need a little help because they're low buck, we're starting on this hill. The Land Rover guy is here gonna show us how it's done. Ready? Go. >> [SOUND] >> I was a little worried about the brakes on these vehicles. Once I saw the finish line and the distance to the ditch, but really that's not much of a ditch. Bob Hope could clear that on a jump cart. [MUSIC] That looks close enough. [NOISE] >> Wahoo! [MUSIC] [LAUGH] >> The other thing [INAUDIBLE] >> [CROSSTALK] launchpad. >> I'm happy. >> Best two out of three. Completely bogus. [MUSIC] [SOUND] [MUSIC] >> It was sabotage. [MUSIC] [LAUGH] >> Point system for first, second, and third. >> DNF's, gets zero. >> DNF getting zero. >> It was a photo finish. >> Second one I thought [CROSSTALK] >> David and Finnegan. D and F. >> So other guys' claiming a victory. I'm not buying it. >> All right, all right. >> Yeah. >> One more time. >> There you go. [CROSSTALK] >> One more time. >> Official. Who's the official? [MUSIC] >> [NOISE] >> Suck it! >> So you're not fired, what happened? >> The key to the Bronco winning, neutral drops. >> No way, that's not a long term solution, I hate to break it to you. >> But it won the race. >> Yeah, our competitiveness is not gonna pay off at this point, I can tell. >> As long as I win one event that's all I care about. >> The winner of the drag race by a mile was the bronco. >> What is the deal? [NOISE] >> So, Bronco, she's a little tired after drag racing. And, she really doesn't wanna run right now. >> Crank. [NOISE] >> Come on, baby. >> Let's do the suck on the carburetor. >> You rev up the engine, hold a rag over the intake and what it does is it stops the airflow and the engine vacuum sucks all the dirt and fuel through all the little and everything else, and clears up, makes it work. Now, it's ready to go. [NOISE] >> It's mint! >> Much better. >> That's what happens when you fail to pop the hood open on a newly purchased automobile before you try to go enter a cheap truck challenge. [SOUND] >> So, what's next is a crawl race. This showcases the crawl ratio of the vehicles to see how slow they can go if you're creepy crawling across some rocks, so we'll actually start all of the vehicles together, first gear, low range and see which one is the slowest moving down the course. >> [MUSIC] >> On your mark, get set, go! [MUSIC] >> [LAUGH] Yeah. >> Come on. [LAUGH] [MUSIC] I can steer, can't I? >> Hey! >> Hi! >> You got help! >> Nobody's driving me. >> You get to go between the orange flags >> What? >> So in theory, Rick won that deal because he was the last one there and we lost cuz we were first, but dude, I've got to ask the question, what 17-year-old kid wants his truck to be slower? So, by the apparent inverted judging standards, I'm calling that a win. Next. In a crawling competition, clearly the winner was the Toyota. [SOUND] >> This is the milk truck challenge, where we have a milk jug taped to the hood of the vehicle. And as you go along, it starts squirting out and that shows you how well your suspension is working. >> This is as if you were a kid hanging out in the woods with your buddies. And all of a sudden, you had to get in your vehicle really quick and race out of there. So this will be a timed event to see who can get to the end of the course the fastest. The guy with the most milk in the jug at the end of the race gets extra points. >> Standby, go. [MUSIC] >> Once I got to the creek bed, make a left up to the hill, I figured, I'm already loosing milk so I just nail it. I started going in four high. Then I really wanted to launch it over this hill, but with my Toyota, I couldn't do it. So I kept it in four low, second gear, and just went the rest of the course sliding and sliding, spurting and spurting, it was like a volcano coming out both ends. I get down to the bottom and I wanted to do a real tight 360 so I took it out of four wheel drive, but it didn't come out of four wheel drive. So I had this super long curve, that cost me a little bit of time. [MUSIC] Time wasn't bad but I lost a lot of milk. [MUSIC] >> So the flag dropped and I ran and got in the Suburban and my seat belt jammed. I'm sure I ate up a bunch of time just doing that. Come on. [MUSIC] The Suburban just soaked up the bumps down to the riverbed. I really wasn't too worried about the milk situation cuz there's tons of milk out there. I can always buy more milk. I had wheel base and power, so I figured I'd just throttle it down and see what happens. [MUSIC] I took it up through the hills and when I came down through the bushes and the trees, I think I smacked one of those cameras on the side. [MUSIC] Luckily, I was able to throttle it through the big donut at the end and come in strong. I don't know how I did on time, but I think I didn't pretty good on not losing too much milk out of the whole jug so. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna win it. >> I had this idea that I could go through my passenger door since I don't have a door, which was gonna save me time versus the other guys having to run around, and I think that really worked. I didn't really get any air, I was trying to modulate the throttle to keep the thing down, soak up the bumps and stay on the terrain and go fast. [MUSIC] I went all the way down the riverbed in two wheel drive, and jumped up out of the bed in two wheel drive and when I had to go through that little nacho, I went to four high. [MUSIC] There was the point where you had to make the donut around the three flags, and I had kicked it into two-wheel drive, and I thought I was just gonna whip it around, but I think that the transfer case stayed in four because it just pushed the front end really bad. When that happened, I killed it. I thought, ohh, I'm completely done now. I got it fired back up and still made it through the gates way faster than those other guys. I'm just going to win this thing on time because, who cares if you spill milk? >> I really don't think I won, but I think I did better than the Bronco. I can't wait to find out. >> Did pretty good in the Bronco, but I really expected it to come off the ground a lot more than he had it. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna win it. >> I totally owned those guys that time. That was a big victory. [MUSIC] In its second victory so far, the Bronco. >> [SOUND] So this next one is a V notch and a hill climb all in the same thing. You're gonna climb up, weave back and forth, get to the top, loop it around and come back down. It's gonna be speed but it's also gonna be gracefulness, so we'll see what we can do. [MUSIC] [NOISE] [MUSIC] >> [LAUGH] Yeah, now hit the Toyota [LAUGH]. >> Mark, get set, go. >> [MUSIC] >> [SOUND] Ouch. [MUSIC] >> Mark, set, go. [MUSIC] >> This Suburban gets it. In case you were wondering. [SOUND] [MUSIC] >> [LAUGH] >> [MUSIC] >> At the hill climb, Bronco wins again. [MUSIC] >> Everybody wanted to go for the mudhole and they somehow convinced me to go first. And the first time I dumped it in there, whoosh. >> Water all over the hood, and I just kept on pulling right up, came right on out. Eat it bitches. I'm pretty sure that I won the mud bog cuz I don't think anybody else is gonna follow me where I just went. [LAUGH] >> I moved my air cleaner up and around on the snorkel to the back and I skirted to the edge. I was still all in the mud but I only got half of it muddy, only half of it dirty and I made it through. So that was good, I had a great line. >> Camera bag. [MUSIC] Food. >> I didn't know if I wanted to do the mud, but as soon as I saw Rick take the go around, I knew I couldn't do that because I would have to not make fun of him for it, so I went right through the middle, but not with quite the speed that Fred did. [LAUGH] [SOUND] >> Freiburger goes through in his big old Bronco. [SOUND] Except he was wearing a dress too so he doesn't count. >> I didn't want to go in fact I punked out and didn't didn't get in this to go. No doors, no way to keep me dry. I'm not going. >> Chick. >> Totally. >> [LAUGH] >> They're like, do it again, do it again! As they do. And when you get through once, you think you're unstoppable, so we went around again and smoosh, water everywhere. And then I realized, submersion is not good for Suburban, and she shut down, we got a bunch of water everywhere. So we towed her over here, pulled all the plugs, cranked her over, shot some water out of the cylinders luckily, she cranks back up. We're gonna put a new air cleaner in it, and go home. >> In the mud pit, gotta go with the Suburban. [MUSIC] >> We're at the Pismo Dunes, and today we're out playing in the sand. [MUSIC] We got to play in the mud and the hills, and the obstacle course yesterday. Today, we're kind of upping up cheap truck challenge by coming out here and just whipping around in the sand, maybe seeing if we can catch a little air off some dunes. >> The Toyota loves the dunes. I can even do it in first gear high range. I don't have to go into low range except for some of those real tough places I need to crawl out of. But to keep the r's up, keep the momentum going, it just floats. It can go through the bowls, it can crest some of the dunes. It's really gonna be fun when we finally get things jumping around here. >> I came out in the Suburban and I drop the thing into low range and I was like this thing's just gonna get stuck, but I put it in third and just got on it and the thing would just start pulling. The tires weren't digging in, I was barreling through. I took it off one of those dunes, bam, I had this huge mess in the back. The cooler was upside down, there was drinks and water and ice all over the place. So, we dug that out. I was kinda surprised how well the big truck was doing. >> Today, the dunes are full of haters and punks that all got roosted on by the Bronco, which I'm now renaming the Master Blaster, cuz she's that good in the dunes. We carved higher on the dune than anybody else that nice bowl right there. It's a little gutless but to be honest, it holds a line better than anything else out here in the dunes. >> You get to go first, Bronco boy. >> Okay, somebody say something nice to my wife and kid and dog after this. [MUSIC] [SOUND] Woo hoo. >> [LAUGH] [SOUND] [LAUGH] The spinebuster. Yeah. >> I think I can do better than that. >> [LAUGH] The jump was deceptive. It was more like hitting a big speed bump, going a little faster than you intended, and it just, boom like that, and hucked the Bronco into the air, long enough that I could say [BLEEP] to myself three times. I'm sore. Landing was a little stiff. I don't know, I didn't see Peiwei and Williams hit it that hard, so once again, I think we should have the trophy. >> In the sand dunes, the Suburban was cool but Hot Rod wins again. In the end, do the math, man. We came, we saw, we conquered. I gotta say though, if you're really gonna go rock crawling, Rick's Toyota would be the best truck and if I had to own one to drive every single day, I'd take the the Suburban. But the ultimate all around vehicle proven beyond the shadow of a doubt, the Hot Rod Bronco. We'll see you again on the next Roadkill, where we have outrageous fun for no apparent reason. [MUSIC] >> Hey, Bebe. Finigan left his phone in here. [MUSIC] I'm going to call his mom. Hi. Hi mom, I miss you. >> [LAUGH] >> America, is that copyrighted? >> Be sure and strap your stuff down when you're at the dunes and. [MUSIC]
Roadkill Not Rated
Reality-TV
20min
Stars: David Freiburger, Mike Finnegan, Steve Dulcich
Rating: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 8.3/10 (156 votes)
Video games: There are driving video games where players can run over animals, such as the arcade version of Cruis'n USA, as well as video games where players control an animal that crosses roads to avoid becoming roadkill, such as Frogger and Crossy Road.
Sources: IMDb, Wikipedia. For corrections, message here.